


Did You Know Sometimes It Frightens Me?

by NovelistAngel23



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst, Biting, Clothed Sex, Crying, Enthusiastic Consent, Feral Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, Finger Sucking, Ghosts, Hurt/Comfort, Loss of Virginity, Loud Sex, M/M, Painful Sex, Praise Kink, Rimming, Rough Sex, Service Kink, Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 04:20:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21009614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NovelistAngel23/pseuds/NovelistAngel23
Summary: "I see them too," he said, holding Dimitri's gaze.Dimitri stared at him for so long that Ashe almost thought time had frozen. But still the wind whistled, and still the stars flickered outside the crumbled cathedral wall.Then Dimitri's thin lips moved, just enough to whisper, "You do."





	Did You Know Sometimes It Frightens Me?

The cathedral had turned to ruin long ago, but still Ashe found himself making the trek there when the moon rose high and with it the voices.

Snatches of conversation he’d heard before. His father, ordering his chefs about the kitchen; mother, laughing with a customer. Sometimes Lonato…  _ It's okay to make mistakes, Ashe. _

_ If that is how you feel, prepare yourself. _

Ashe pushed open the heavy wooden door, feeling small as he snuck through the tiny opening he managed. He liked to believe he'd grown stronger during the war, but still the voices haunted him and still the doors were heavy.

It used to be that the cathedral was always full of the loud, powerful chords of the organ. It echoed off the walls and surrounded him, the hymn of choir practice on one side, the whistle of wind through the door of the other.

Now there was nothing but that whistling wind, filling the cathedral entirely. A hole had been punched into one wall, and the stained glass ceiling far above had shattered, its remains still littering the floor. So much would have to be done to return the place to its former glory--if it was even possible.

And ahead of him, the organ he loved so much had been smashed into rubble. Before it stood Dimitri. Still as a statue.

Ashe froze halfway towards him, staring. The voices all around him seemed to rise to a crescendo, and more joined them. Voices he didn't recognize, wisps, emanating from Dimitri's trembling shoulders.

Ashe swallowed hard. He swore he could see them--pale, glowing hands creeping all around Dimitri's shoulders--and it made his eyes burn with tears. He'd spent so long convincing himself that ghosts weren't real, ever since his parents died and didn't stop talking to him. He'd gotten good at ignoring them.

Then the war. Then this ill-fated reunion. The moment they all learned of Dedue's death, it was like they came creeping back. Another friend lost. Another life gone, and could he hear him? Was that only an illusion?

He wondered if Dimitri saw those ghosts too. He couldn't bear the thought. All those five long years alone… listening to them, feeling them, seeing them.

As students, Ashe had always kept a respectful distance from Dimitri, but now he couldn't.

He hurried forward, moving as if possessed, as if pushed forward by someone else's hands. When he was close, he heard Dimitri muttering to himself. Even the howling wind couldn't hide his feral snarls, "Yes, yes, I will, I must--please stop, please, I promise--"

"Your--"

Dimitri whipped around to Ashe, and despite himself, Ashe shrank back. Dimitri's hair matted and messy, blue eye glowing wild, lips twisted with a growl. "You," he hissed. Then he paused. He seemed to deflate. "You're no ghost."

Ashe's lips trembled. So he did see them. It was a strange feeling. He felt less alone, for a brief moment. And he felt desperately protective.

"No," Ashe whispered, taking a hesitant step forward.

Dimitri didn't back away. Ashe tilted his head back to look up at him. They weren't so far apart in height as they used to be, but with his thick, matted cloak over his shoulders, Ashe felt awfully small before him.

"Why are you here?" Dimitri hissed.

His eye narrowed, the darkness underneath like a bruise. Ashe was overcome with a longing to touch, a longing that he swallowed. It felt like a lump going down.

"I…" Ashe met his gaze, his hands shaking at his sides.

"Leave me," Dimitri said, and it sounded more like a warning than a demand.

Well Ashe was cautious, but he was also brave.

"I see them too," he said, holding Dimitri's gaze.

He didn't know why he needed Dimitri to know. Maybe he didn't want him to feel alone. He wanted him to see that Ashe understood. If no one else, Ashe understood. He saw them, heard them, felt them. Dimitri's shoulders were far broader than his own, his burden heavier by virtue of being a prince, but he needn't carry it alone.

Dimitri stared at him for so long that Ashe almost thought time had frozen. But still the wind whistled, and still the stars flickered outside the crumbled cathedral wall.

Then Dimitri's thin lips moved, just enough to whisper, "You do."

It wasn't a question. Ashe was almost grateful. He'd been laughed at before, or reassured it was only his imagination. It was so strange, to say it to someone who understood. It was so strange to be understood.

He stepped closer again, and Dimitri looked down at him, chin very nearly to his collar. "I do," he repeated.

Dimitri's eye filled with tears. Ashe didn't expect it, letting out a short gasp until Dimitri all but collapsed against him. Their chests pressed together, Dimitri's face in his hair. He could feel every shuddering breath he took, in and out. He reached up to put his own hands against his stomach. "Your--"

"They're so loud," Dimitri gasped. "So loud, I hear them… so loud, Ashe, so…"

Ashe nodded, his hands sliding to to touch Dimitri's arms. Holding him still. Close. "I know," he whispered. "I know, I understand."

Dimitri suddenly moved, and Ashe gasped when his hands gripped his biceps and squeezed. Pain shot up to his shoulders. Dimitri yanked him back to look at him, his eye glowing so cold in the moonlight shining down on them. If Ashe were closer, he knew he'd see his crest there, the last remnant of his family line. No one… no one was left but him.

"How do I make them go away?" Dimitri pleaded.

Ashe felt his mouth go dry. He didn't… he didn't know. "I used to…" He looked back at the organ, smashed to pieces under the old ceiling of the cathedral. "I used to come here," he whispered. "The sound was so loud, it drowned them out. And feeling… feeling everyone around me, I--"

"Feeling," Dimitri breathed. Ashe turned to face him again, yelping when he was yanked close again, their faces inches apart. "Sound, you… distracted yourself."

Ashe nodded, every bit of him trembling. "I focus on… anything else. Anything. Books. Music. Conversation."

Dimitri pressed their foreheads together, and Ashe closed his eyes. "Ashe, distract me."

Ashe bit his lip hard. The voices were still loud around them. So loud, and he felt their hands on his shoulders, pulling. Yanking him away from Dimitri, but Dimitri's grip was tighter.

"We… we could talk--"

"No," Dimitri breathed, shaking his head. Ashe felt him move even closer, his breath against his lips. “I need to feel you.”

Ashe furrowed his brow, afraid to open his eyes, afraid to see Dimitri staring at him, afraid of what it would make him feel. “Your Highness--”

“No!”

Ashe’s eyes shot open as Dimitri shook him. “No, no, you can’t--I’m no prince anymore,” Dimitri insisted, his eye bright with tears. “I’m a monster, a monster--”

“No, you’re not--”

“Call me by my name,” Dimitri said, his voice cold with fury. “Call me Dimitri. Nothing more.”

Ashe stared at him. He’d never… He’d never been able to before. It felt wrong in his mouth. It felt too intimate. Too raw and real, and it made his stomach flutter in ways it shouldn’t.

He wanted to.

He moved his hands up, surprised when Dimitri’s grip loosened on his biceps. He put his hands against Dimitri’s chest and whispered, “Dimitri.”

Dimitri’s lips were rough against his, biting, forceful. Ashe could only gasp and scramble to hold on as Dimitri crushed him against his chest, kissing him as if he couldn’t stop himself. The cold of his pitch black armor, the heat of his mouth, his tongue, forcing Ashe’s lips to part for him. Ashe’s nails scraped against his armor, and he let out a weak moan.

He could barely breathe. He couldn’t breathe, Dimitri’s kiss was so needy, his arms so tight around him.

But the voices were gone.

Dimitri pulled back only for a moment, long enough to pick Ashe up off the floor. Ashe squeaked in surprise, putting his hands on Dimitri’s shoulders as their mouths met again in a kiss. He kissed him back, messy and inexperienced, but eager. The voices were gone and… and even if Dimitri no longer believed himself a prince, Ashe did. His prince needed him, and he wanted to serve him.

He hastily shoved off his gloves, moving his bare hands to cup Dimitri’s face. He felt the way his jaw moved as they kissed, felt the hint of tears cold on his cheeks. Dimitri’s arms tightened around his thighs as his thumb rubbed underneath his eye, catching whatever pearls were left.

Dimitri pulled out of the kiss, leaving Ashe panting for breath, staring down at him. There was a strange gentleness in his gaze, something Ashe hadn’t expected. It was as if some bit of the old Dimitri he knew still remained, scared and soft. Ashe longed for it. He opened his mouth to say his name, but Dimitri spoke first.

“I won’t be gentle,” he said, and the words sent a scandalous shiver down Ashe’s back. “I’ve forgotten how.”

Ashe didn’t know what to say, his hands still gently cupping Dimitri’s face. He’d never actually… He hadn’t… But…

He wanted to. He wanted to give Dimitri everything. His first and last and all the times in between, and if Dimitri couldn’t be gentle, then Ashe would take it rough.

“If you can’t handle that, then leave. Now. This is your last chance,” Dimitri said, and the growl underneath his words made Ashe’s hands tremble on his face.

Ashe just leaned down and kissed him.

It happened so fast. One moment in the air, and then suddenly Dimitri had thrown off his cloak and laid Ashe on it. Ashe stared at Dimitri leaning over him, breathless. Even without his cloak he seemed so intimidatingly big, his broad shoulders blocking out the moonlight that shone down over them. It haloed his head, leaving everything but his glowing eye in shadow. Ashe felt for a moment that he was prey underneath a beast.

But he reached up and ran his knuckles down Dimitri’s cheek.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “Take what you need, Dimitri.”

“How long I’ve waited to hear you say my name,” Dimitri whispered, and then they were kissing again.

Ashe moaned when Dimitri pushed between his legs, forcing him to spread them. The cloak was thick, but he could still feel the rubble underneath as Dimitri pinned him to the floor. He rolled his hips as he kissed Ashe, and even through his clothes, Ashe could feel the coldness of his armor and the hardness of his cock.

It sent a flush all through him. Suddenly his clothes felt too tight, too warm. Was Dimitri really already so worked up?

He moaned high in his throat as Dimitri moved to suck at his throat, his teeth almost sharp. He dug them in, surely leaving a mark under Ashe’s jaw. Ashe closed his eyes tight and let him, his hands weak against his shoulders. If his prince wanted to mark him, then he could mark him. How he would explain it didn’t matter.

Ashe arched when he felt Dimitri’s hands rip at the hem of his pants, dragging them halfway down his thighs along with his smallclothes.

The cold of Dimitri’s armor against his bare skin made him whine, his hands gripping the cloak underneath him. “D-Dimitri--”

Dimitri groaned at the sound of his name, yanking Ashe’s pants off and throwing them away. His gauntleted hands nicked his skin as he slid them up his thighs to his hips. Ashe gasped as he was flipped onto his stomach.

Dimitri’s broad frame leaning over his back made Ashe whimper, burying his face in the matted fur of the cloak. He could barely feel Dimitri mouthing at his shoulder over the fabric of his coat. Reaching underneath him, he unbuttoned it and shrugged it off, biting his lip hard as Dimitri followed his lead, ripping at the buttons of his shirt and tugging it off his shoulders too.

Dimitri’s chapped lips against his bared shoulder made his throat feel tight. There was something so intimate about it, until Dimitri opened his mouth and sank his teeth into his skin there too. His canines were surely too sharp, Ashe could feel the pinprick pain and the heat of blood, but then Dimitri soothed the wound with a lave of his tongue.

He rolled his hips against Ashe still as he scattered bites across his upper back, but he made no move to do anything else, as if he were singly focused on marking Ashe and feeling his small body underneath his.

That was almost comforting somehow. That even his presence somehow soothed the beast, silenced the voices. Ashe hadn’t heard his own since that first kiss, and he wondered if he’d be content to stay here like this, half-dressed and shivering and moaning lightly every time his prince sunk his teeth into his skin.

Then he heard the clank of metal hitting the stone floor and glanced back to see Dimitri’s bare hands sliding up his sides, over his shoulder. It brushed his hair from his face, and then Ashe felt fingertips against his mouth. He opened his mouth to say something, but two fingers shoved inside instead, nearly making him gag.

He moaned through his nose, letting Dimitri messily thrust his fingers past his lips. They were long but they weren’t thin, filling Ashe’s mouth completely with the taste of metal and salt. Dimitri’s other hand moved to pull Ashe’s bangs out of his eyes, and Ashe glanced back at him as he struggled to suck on his fingers. The way he thrust them was nearly violent, as if he didn’t care every time Ashe coughed or gagged, as if he was enjoying the way Ashe’s eyes squinted and teared up.

Dimitri leaned down, and he felt him whisper against his ear, “Imagine it’s my cock. Pleasure me.”

Ashe choked and moaned at that, his eyes fluttering shut as he imagined it. How would Dimitri have him? On his knees? Hands on Dimitri’s hips as His Highness gripped his hair and forced him back and forth. Would Dimitri like it if he moved his tongue like this? Would he like it better if he looked at him?

Ashe had never actually done that before. He wanted to. He wanted to pleasure Dimitri. He wanted to be of service. To do whatever he needed.

He was struck suddenly by a memory. Long ago, when they were just students. His voices quiet, Dimitri’s invisible. He’d nearly cried with frustration when Dimitri bought him a gift in return for his help. Why couldn’t he understand that helping his prince was gift enough?

He gagged as Dimitri shoved his fingers in deep, brushing the back of his tongue and pulling him out of the memory. He opened his eyes heavy-lidded and looked back to see Dimitri was mesmerized by the way his lips stretched around his fingers. Tentatively, he laved his tongue underneath, between them. Dimitri moaned, and the sound felt like a reward, like praise.

Dimitri pulled his fingers out slowly, dripping in spit, a long line of it connecting his fingertips to Ashe’s lips. Ashe panted for breath, watching them leave, and then closed his eyes as Dimitri leaned back.

He gripped the cloak tight when he felt Dimitri move from over him, shuffling down towards his spread thighs. His knees ached from holding him up, but he didn’t dare move, especially not when Dimitri’s hand caressed one thigh. He bit his swollen lip hard as Dimitri’s hand moved up, cupping his ass and spreading it. “D-Dimi--”

“Have you ever done this before?” Dimitri asked, and Ashe gasped when he felt one of Dimitri’s spit-slick fingers circle his hole.

He buried his face in the fur of the cloak again, shaking his head. “T-to myself,” he admitted, his voice quiet with shame.

“Good,” Dimitri said.

Then his finger pushed inside.

Ashe cried out at the intrusion, too fast, too much. But Dimitri had no intention of slowing down, thrusting his finger in and out over and over. “Speak to me, Ashe,” Dimitri commanded. “What did you think of when you did this to yourself?”

Ashe gripped the cloak tight in his hands, wishing he could hide. But Dimitri was right there, watching as his finger spread him open, watching Ashe’s thighs tremble, watching precome gather at the tip of his cock. There was no hiding. Did he want to? Didn’t he want to give his prince everything?

Dimitri maneuvered his finger around until he brushed against something that made Ashe jolt in surprise at the pleasure. “Here?” he asked, and Ashe whined loud and long when Dimitri made a show of stroking the spot over and over. He stopped when Ashe arched, deliberately moving his finger away. “Tell me your fantasies. I’ll do it again when you do.”

Ashe could have cried, crossing his arms so he could hide his face in them. “D-Dimitri--”

“Was it me?”

The words were like an arrow, cutting through Ashe’s defenses. He felt tears burn his eyes. “It shouldn’t have been,” he whispered.

But it was.

Dimitri stroked the spot slowly and deliberately, making a shiver run so very slowly up and down Ashe’s back. “What did you imagine, Ashe? What did you imagine your precious prince would do to you?”

He practically snarled the words, and though it hurt, Ashe took it in stride. His precious prince. Had he ever imagined he would treat him gently? Had he ever imagined it would be this cruel?

He’d… always wanted to serve him. Always wanted to kneel before him, like a knight to his liege. Hadn’t he imagined it, those days Dimitri seemed far away or upset? Would he feel better if Ashe asked to be of service? A tryst in a quiet hidden part of the library, an offering in the safety of his room?

He’d never imagined it rough like this, but he’d never imagined it kind.

“I-I imagined you… using me,” he whispered, and he treasured Dimitri’s growl. “T-taking out… Taking out your frustration on me, I wanted… I wanted to be of service, Your--”

Dimitri pulled out his finger and pressed in the second, making Ashe cry out. It hurt, it was surely too fast, but Dimitri pumped them in and out, fast and hard and dirty, until Ashe started to enjoy the burn of it. He let out a quiet sob, his knees nearly giving out, if not for the strength of Dimitri’s grip, holding tight to his hip. “Tell me more,” Dimitri asked, and it sounded more like a plea this time.

Ashe felt the tears burn again at the sound of it. Were the voices coming back to him? He wanted them to go away. Why wouldn’t they leave them alone? They were dead and gone, and he and Dimitri, they were still here. Why did it matter to them? Wasn’t it supposed to be better, in the sky, amongst the stars?

Why wouldn’t they go?

“I wanted to ask you,” Ashe said, his voice loud in the empty cathedral. He raised it as high as he could, drowning out any other sound. “I wanted to ask you to take me. If it would have made you feel better. I wanted to be good for you. I didn’t need anything in return.”

He gasped loud when he felt Dimitri lean forward and press his tongue against his rim. The sensation made his head spin, Dimitri licking and sucking as his fingers pounded into him. He sobbed again when Dimitri’s teeth sank into his skin again. It felt good, however mean it was. However hard and uncaring of his pleasure Dimitri seemed to be, he felt like he was being worshipped.

“Do you still want that?” Dimitri asked between licks and bites.

Ashe closed his eyes tight, feeling the tears. Yes. He did. So badly. He’d never known before… never known Dimitri experienced it all too. The ghosts, the voices, the guilt. His parents were gone. Christophe too. Lonato… by his own hand. They hung over him and asked how he could possibly go on.

Dimitri knew how it felt. And he wanted so badly to take that pain away, even if it were at his own expense.

“Yes,” he breathed, his voice tremulous, like a foal taking its first steps. A desperate need to heal Dimitri suddenly over taking him, new and fragile and eager. “Yes, please, Dimitri. Please, I want to help you.”

Dimitri pulled his fingers out and leaned away. Tears spilled from Ashe’s eyes. It ached and stung, but the emptiness was worst of all. He heard the rustle of clothes, and when he looked over his shoulder, he saw Dimitri pulling out his cock. He tried not to think about how big it was, or how it would hurt to take. Instead he looked up and up at Dimitri’s glowing blue eye, hazy with desire. _Desire _.

He wanted this just as much as Ashe.

Ashe reached back towards him, and Dimitri flinched, grasping Ashe’s wrist tight. He pinned it to the ground, over his head, leaning heavily over him. “Stay still,” he ordered, and Ashe nodded, closing his eyes tight, biting his lip.

Dimitri pressed his forehead to his bloody shoulder. Ashe gasped when he felt the head of his cock tease his entrance, and then screeched when it pushed inside. He couldn’t help it. The pain was too much. When Dimitri’s free hand gripped his hip, he felt his knees give out. His hips smacked painfully into the floor, his cock pinned against the cloak. But still Dimitri pushed, deeper and deeper, until Ashe could feel nothing but Dimitri inside of him. The hand around his wrist, so tight it felt like the fragile bone would snap; the weight of Dimitri’s body; his cold, cold armor; his bruising hand on his hip. Ashe felt none of it, for the heavy pain of Dimitri inside of him.

And he loved it.

Through the tears, he grinned. He couldn’t hear them. The wind whistled loud and Dimitri panted against his shoulder. His heart pounded so loud in his ears. He couldn’t hear them at all.

Then Dimitri began to move. He set a brutal pace almost immediately, his hips slapping against Ashe’s ass, and Ashe just took it, going limp against the cloak. He didn’t know when the pain became pleasure, when he started to moan, but Dimitri went harder as he did. So hard that Ashe started to cry, tears spilling down his cheeks.

When Dimitri’s lips pressed against his cheek, kissing each tear as they fell, he sobbed. How could he be so cruel one moment, and so kind the next? Dimitri’s hand moved from his wrist, sliding up to lace their fingers together. It made Ashe’s heart swell with a strange affection.

“Th-thank you,” he cried. “Thank you, Dimitri, thank--hah!”

Dimitri sank his teeth into his neck, sucking violently, and it made Ashe writhe. He gripped Dimitri’s hand tight, his free hand reaching back to cup the back of Dimitri’s neck. His hair was sticky with sweat, his skin so hot it burned. But still Ashe held on until Dimitri removed his mouth from his neck and moved up his jaw and kissed his lips.

He pulled him tight into the kiss, moaning when his cock brushed that spot inside of him. Dimitri seemed to notice, because he pushed down hard on Ashe’s hip to keep him from moving. He adjusted his position, the metal of his boots scraping the floor, and then he was pounding against that spot over and over. Ashe sobbed for it.

“Louder,” Dimitri begged in Ashe’s ear. “Louder, please, I--”

Ashe ducked his head and moaned louder, so loud that it hurt his throat. “Yes,” Dimitri encouraged. “Yes, good, yes, like that.” He growled ferociously, his hand so tight in Ashe’s that it felt like he’d shatter the bone. “You’re perfect, perfect--”

Ashe moaned as loud as he could, his blood boiling at the praise. He wanted to be praised. He wanted to be good, to be perfect, to please and earn this affection. “Again,” he begged, his voice so plaintive in the cold night air.

“Perfect,” Dimitri repeated. Ashe felt his hips stuttering, and the thought that he was about to come made Ashe grit his teeth around a scream. “Perfect, you’re perfect, Ashe, perfect--”

Ashe came unexpectedly, his whole body writhing underneath Dimitri, his come staining the cloak. It was overwhelming, the pleasure, the pain, the desperation. Ashe saw nothing, heard nothing. Felt nothing but Dimitri curled around him. He couldn’t have been sure the sound he made, but it must have been loud, because Dimitri thanked him.

He sat up, grabbing Ashe’s hips in both hands and slamming into him one, two more times, before pushing in deep and practically snarling with pleasure.

Ashe let out a shaky sob as Dimitri spilled inside him, his body feeling limp and useless, trembling from the abuse and the pleasure. For a long time, Dimitri stayed inside him, sitting on his thighs, and holding his hips. They breathed like that for so long that Ashe felt his eyes go heavy with exhaustion.

Then Dimitri slowly, slowly pulled out. The drag was long, and Ashe twitched, flinched. His hands curled weakly in the fur of the cloak again, the hand and wrist Dimitri had held feeling fragile and achy. As Dimitri popped out, he felt his come spill down, pooling on the cloak between Ashe’s thighs. Dimitri didn’t seem to care. He leaned down, lapping at his messy hole.

Ashe had no strength to tell him he shouldn’t, though his senses were slowly returning to him. Dimitri was… Dimitri was a prince, he shouldn’t… He shouldn’t do something so…

But Dimitri was insistent, lapping at what had spilled, and up his perineum, back to his hole, where he pressed his tongue inside as if to catch every last drop. If only Ashe weren’t so exhausted, he might have come again from the sensation.

Dimitri squeezed his ass in both hands and then pulled his tongue out, licking his lips as he moved to lean over Ashe again. Ashe hummed when Dimitri collapsed over him, so heavy, his chestplate cold on his back. Dimitri’s hand slowly took his fragile hand, so gentle that it surprised Ashe. “I hurt you,” he whispered, turning his hand in the moonlight to see the bruises forming around his wrist.

“I liked it,” Ashe admitted.

The admission brought a blush to his face, and he couldn’t help thinking how silly that was. To blush--after being ravaged so completely--because he enjoyed the experience. He let Dimitri cup his hand in his bigger one, and closed his eyes, snuggling into the fur of the cloak.

He lay there for a moment, breathing, feeling Dimitri breathe against him. Then he wriggled, and Dimitri moved back to allow it. He flipped over, wincing at the pain all over his body, and looked up at Dimitri. Far above them, the moonlight scattered through the remains of the stained glass ceiling. Ashe could pick out stars, clear and sparkling.

Dimitri’s eye still glowed cold blue, and Ashe couldn’t help thinking of it as its own star. After all, that’s what crests were, right? Remnants of the stars? Dimitri’s shone brightest of all.

He reached up to cup his face in his hand, surprised when Dimitri nuzzled into his touch. He didn’t smile, but that was okay. Who could smile at a time like this?

“Did that help?” he asked, his throat sore and raspy.

Dimitri whimpered, and the sound ached in Ashe’s chest. A secretive pain, a burden lighter for having shared it but heavy nonetheless. “For now,” Dimitri said.

Ashe pulled his other hand from Dimitri’s and reached up to wrap his arms around his neck. He brought him down close, felt Dimitri hide his face in his bruised neck. “Me too,” he whispered. He rubbed soothingly down Dimitri’s back, scratched lightly at his scalp. “Me too.”

He fell asleep that way, careless of where they were or what position they were in.

* * *

When Ashe woke up the next morning, still sore and achy, his tattered clothes were back on and he was wrapped tightly in Dimitri’s cloak. He lay curled up on a pew, morning light shining down on him and keeping him warm.

He raised his head, looking back and forth in search of Dimitri. His shoulders hurt so badly, his neck and hips and definitely his ass. But when he saw Dimitri, he forgot the pain.

Dimitri stood where he had the night before, staring at the organ, still nothing but rubble. The sunlight was as soft as the moonlight had been, and it glinted off Dimitri’s golden hair. He looked smaller without his cloak. He looked vulnerable.

Ashe’s throat felt tight. “Your--” He stopped and swallowed hard. “Dimitri?”

Dimitri turned to him, his eye going wide at the sight of him. Ashe wondered if he hadn’t expected him to be real, another ghost, an illusion.

But then he walked towards him. Before Ashe could say anything, Dimitri knelt and kissed him deeply. Ashe kissed him back, closing his eyes tight. It wasn’t as rough as their first. It was longing instead, needy, and Dimitri’s hands reached beneath the cloak to touch his waist and slide up to touch his back. Ashe hissed in pain, and Dimitri lightly licked his lip, as if apologizing.

When they pulled apart, Ashe looked down at him dazedly, his lips trembling. He realized they were still alone in the cathedral. Had no one else woken yet? Had Dimtiri ordered them to stay away?

He didn’t ask. He didn’t really care. When Dimitri rested his head against his chest, ear against his heartbeat, he didn’t care. He reached up hesitantly to run his fingers through his hair. Still it was matted and messy, but Ashe savored the content rumble that came from Dimitri’s chest at the sensation. He was like an animal, like a lion, happy to be comforted in the warmth of the sun.

“You’ll stay here,” Dimitri said, his hands surprisingly gentle as they moved back to Ashe’s waist. He leaned back to look up at Ashe from his place on the floor. “They’re… quieter. When you’re here.”

Ashe nodded, pressing his forehead against Dimitri’s and closing his eyes. He could hear the voices, Lonato’s loudest, reminding him that he shouldn’t have done this. He’d crossed a line. A commoner and a prince? It was wrong. It was wrong, wrong,  _ wrong _ .

But with Dimitri there, his breath soft against his lips, Ashe could barely hear them. His own voice, fluttering in his throat, whispered from within that there were no lines to cross. He and Dimitri, they were the same. Haunted, but now safe.

“Of course,” he whispered, cupping Dimitri’s face in his hands. “As long as you need me, Dimitri, I’ll stay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who goes to DimiAshe too! I was nervous to post this because it's not my usual wholesome content, but!! I really loved how this came out! =D My friend and I headcanon Ashe can see ghosts because of a note in the game that implies he's seen one before? So, Ashe connecting to Dimitri and being able to comfort him because he knows what he's going through.......... that's the good stuff.
> 
> Title is taken from Ghost by Emilie Autumn, but I need you all to know I listened to Clair De Lune on repeat while writing this because Clair De Lune is my DimiAshe song XD
> 
> Anyway, comments and kudos are deeply appreciated! You can hit me up on twitter @novelistangel23 ! Come talk FE3H with me, I'm obsessed lmfao. Thank you so much for reading!


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